Carrie Plumb was the widow of Emporia Founder and United States Senator Preston B. Plumb. She built the house in 1895 around an earlier house which had been the Plumb home since 1880. It is an elaborate example of the Neocolonial style, in which Georgian and pseudo-Georgian details are used to ornament an irregular, picturesque Victorian building. The facade is dominated by a two-story portico, supported by four wooden, influted Ionic columns. At the southeast corner of the house is the library, an octagonal tan brick structure with green metal roof. Today, the house serves as a residence for low-income working women.